Toronto Mayor Rob Ford hit out at the city’s new plastic shopping bag ban on Thursday calling it “the dumbest thing council has done.”

Toronto yesterday became the first major city in Canada to ban retailers from offering plastic bags, as of Jan. 1, 2013, following a council decision that also scraps the 6¢ bag fee.

The surprise bag ban — made Wednesday without study or consultation — was immediately heralded by environmentalists, but in a radio interview on local Toronto station AM640 this morning, the mayor attacked council members who voted in support of the ban.

“It’s the dumbest thing council has done and council has done some dumb things,” the mayor told host John Oakley.

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Bagless Cities of the world

Toronto isn’t the first city to do away with plastic shopping bags. Several other municipalities (even entire countries) have banned polyethylene at the check-out line. Alex Nino Gheciu looks at a few of those bagless areas.

Los Angeles In May, Los Angeles voted 13 to 1 in favour of phasing out single-use plastic bags at about 7,500 stores over the next 16 months. As a result, shoppers will need to either bring their own reusable bags when they go shopping or buy paper ones for $.10 each. City officials plan to conduct a study in two years to determine whether the ban should include paper, too.

San Francisco In 2007, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags, applying it only to supermarkets and pharmacies. Since then, officials have moved to expand the bag restrictions to all retail establishments starting this October. However, the Save The Plastic Bag Coalition recently launched a lawsuit against the city, arguing it failed to follow the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act before instituting the ban.

Sioux Lookout, Ont. The town of Sioux Lookout became the first Ontario community to ban plastic bags in 2010. The ban didn’t last, however. Its new city council decided to repeal the bylaw the very next year. Mayor Dennis Leney said the majority of the community was against the bag ban and that council would work with citizens to promote recycling initiatives.

Mexico City Shops in Mexico City can face fines of up to $90,000 if they hand out plastic bags for free. The law, implemented in 2010, was part of the city’s “Green Plan,” aimed at tackling issues from air pollution to the need for more organic food in city markets. Prior to the ban, the city’s 9 million residents plowed through 20 millions bags a day. Shop owners who refuse to comply can be thrown in jail for 36 hours.

Italy In January, Italy became the first European country to ban plastic bags nationwide. Shop owners were still allowed to hand out bags they had in stock, but were prohibited from ordering more. Before the ban, Italy was one of the top consumers.

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The Mayor’s reaction echoed comments he made yesterday after the vote when he claimed the decision would open up the city up to potential lawsuits.

Outlawing plastic bags had not been on the agenda at City Hall. But a window opened as council debated what to do with the so-called “bag tax”; the mayor, responding to residents who called to complain about it, pushed to cancel the fee.

During debate on the mayor’s proposal Wednesday, Councillor Anthony Perruzza instead proposed a ban on single-use plastic bags starting Jan 1, 2014. In the end, it was Ford ally Councillor Shiner who, moved by his colleague’s impassioned arguments, won support to move the date up a year.

Council voted 27 to 17 to make the prohibition effective Jan. 1, 2013. The mayor’s proposal to rescind the bag fee on July 1 passed 23 to 21.

It’s not clear how the city will make sure retailers aren’t giving out plastic bags, or whether the ban will stand up to a legal challenge.

Mr. Shiner expects retailers to start providing paper bags, like the LCBO, or shoppers to bring their own. He said stores can still sell garbage or green bin bags.

Mayor Ford also claimed victory for cancelling the fee, but said the ban is ludicrous.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I think we’re going to get sued,” he said. “You can’t tell these people they can’t give out plastic bags.”

City council introduced the bag fee in 2009 under mayor David Miller as a way to reduce the amount of bags going to landfill. City staff say bag usage has dropped 53% since then, while a “culture of renewable bag usage” has been widely adopted. But the city could never force retailers to donate the money raised from the bag fee, an estimated $5.4-million a year, to environmental programs, opening it up to criticism. Councillor Michelle Berardinetti had sought to steer the funds to the city’s tree canopy program.

A spokesperson for the Canadian Plastics Industry Association was pleased that council rescinded the fee, but was “shocked” that it banned the bags. The group is “considering all our options,” said Marion Axmith.

“The city of Toronto already has the solution in place now, bags are collected and recycled,” she said, adding the decision puts plastic bag manufacturing jobs at risk.

A spokesperson for Loblaw says the grocery giant adheres to city bylaws. “To date, Loblaw has eight stores across Canada where plastic shopping bags are not available,” Julija Hunter, vice-president, public relations for Loblaw Companies Ltd., wrote in an email.

Councillor Paul Ainslie said he would have preferred a legal opinion before council voted. He is not sure what authority the city has to tell businesses and consumers how to carry products out of a store.

“This was made on the fly,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. “When you’re making a pretty significant change to consumers and retailers … it might help to ask them first.”

Environmentalists said the decision signals the city is taking a leadership role; Councillor Shiner said it was time to take decisive action.

“It’s not as if we’re the first ones to do this. There are many cities across North America that have already banned them. I think we’re just providing leadership here in Canada, and in Ontario, to try and do the right thing,” he said.

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